Reuters World News Highlights 1800 GMT May 30

May 30, 2013|Reuters

TOP STORIES

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BEIRUT - Syrian rebels under siege near the Lebanese borderpleaded for help on Thursday against government troops and theirHezbollah allies as a confident President Bashar al-Assad spokeof having new Russian missiles.

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BAGHDAD - A series of bombs battered Shi'ite and SunniMuslim neighbourhoods across Baghdad on Thursday, killing atleast 25 people in the worst wave of sectarian violence sincecivil war five years ago.

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WASHINGTON - Authorities intercepted a threatening letteraddressed to U.S. President Barack Obama that was similar toones sent to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the SecretService said on Thursday.

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PARIS/BERLIN - President Francois Hollande's insistence thatthe EU executive can't "dictate" reforms to France has outragedAngela Merkel's conservatives, hours before the German leaderwas due in Paris for talks.

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OSLO - Big companies should report their impact on theenvironment in addition to their earnings under a U.N. plan toboost economic growth and ease poverty by 2030, according torecommendations by a panel of world leaders issued on Thursday.

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BEIJING - Chinese state media rejected on Thursday Europeanaccusations that China was pressuring the European Union to dropplans to impose import duties on Chinese solar panels, adding EUmember states had a right to disagree with the tariff.

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BRUSSELS - The European Union agreed on Thursday to put anend to decades of over-fishing and rebuild dwindling stocks by2020, as part of a deal to overhaul the bloc's fisheries policy.

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TORONTO - Between the army of reporters camped at his doorand an exodus of top aides, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has endured atough two weeks since allegations surfaced that he was caughtsmoking crack cocaine on video, something he staunchly denies.

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PRETORIA - South African President Jacob Zuma tried to playdown the effect of labour unrest on the economy on Thursday butmanaged to trigger a nearly 3 percent plunge in the rand againstthe dollar instead.

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SHANGHAI/BEIJING - In three decades, Wan Long has turnedShuanghui International Holdings from a small, loss-making meatprocessor into China's largest, and is making his country'sbiggest takeover of a U.S. company - the $4.7 billionacquisition of Smithfield Foods Inc , the world's leading porkproducer.

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PHNOM PENH - A leader of the Cambodian Khmer Rouge expressedremorse on Thursday for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 millionpeople during the "Killing Fields" regime in the 1970s andaccepted responsibility for the first time during courtproceedings.

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BEIJING - From faking marriage certificates to get honeymoondiscounts in the Maldives to letting children defecate on thefloor of a Taiwan airport, Chinese tourists have recently foundthemselves at the centre of controversy and anger.

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MOUNT VERNON - They're freakishly strong, hungryair-breathers that can survive for short periods on land. Butnorthern snakehead fish, once viewed as an unstoppable scourgein U.S. waters, may have gotten a bad rap.